New evidence discovered for retrial

Philip Dean Brock

By CHRIS OLWELL | The News Herald

Published: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 at 09:41 PM.

PANAMA CITY — Philip Logan Brock, whose father is on trial for the murder of his neighbor, testified that he found $12,000 worth of silver coins concealed a pool pump on his father’s property when he went with a detective to look for additional evidence last month.

The evidence had not been discovered prior to Philip Dean Brock’s first jury trial in September, which resulted in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked after six hours of deliberation. Brock’s son said it was discovered just moments after he and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office lead investigator on the case had joked about finding silver.

He said he asked the investigator if there was any evidentiary value to the pool pump on the property he owned but his father lived on.

“ ‘Not unless it’s filled with silver,’ and then we both just kind of laughed,” Logan Brock said.

Brock’s attorney, Kim Jewell, questioned her client’s son about how secure the property had been kept since Brock’s arrest in December 2012. Someone had gotten into the living quarters and been through some of his father’s personal papers, Logan Brock said.

Jewell had been critical of the investigation even before the discovery of new evidence after the first trial. In July she called it “sloppy” during a pretrial hearing during which she also relayed her client’s accusations against investigators that were not supported by evidence. Her remarks drew a response from Sheriff Frank McKeithen on Facebook in a post that suggested she had a vendetta against the BCSO and was using a “dirty cop defense” instead of a “competent defense.”

In another notable variation from the first trial, prosecutor Larry Basford and crime scene investigator Mike Wesley went to victim Terry Brazil’s home and asked him to swing a bedpost possibly used to batter Brazil in the bedroom. Wesley testified that he is roughly a foot taller than Brock, and he was able to swing the bed post freely without hitting the ceiling or anything else in the room.

PANAMA CITY — Philip Logan Brock, whose father is on trial for the murder of his neighbor, testified that he found $12,000 worth of silver coins concealed a pool pump on his father’s property when he went with a detective to look for additional evidence last month.

The evidence had not been discovered prior to Philip Dean Brock’s first jury trial in September, which resulted in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked after six hours of deliberation. Brock’s son said it was discovered just moments after he and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office lead investigator on the case had joked about finding silver.

He said he asked the investigator if there was any evidentiary value to the pool pump on the property he owned but his father lived on.

“ ‘Not unless it’s filled with silver,’ and then we both just kind of laughed,” Logan Brock said.

Brock’s attorney, Kim Jewell, questioned her client’s son about how secure the property had been kept since Brock’s arrest in December 2012. Someone had gotten into the living quarters and been through some of his father’s personal papers, Logan Brock said.

Jewell had been critical of the investigation even before the discovery of new evidence after the first trial. In July she called it “sloppy” during a pretrial hearing during which she also relayed her client’s accusations against investigators that were not supported by evidence. Her remarks drew a response from Sheriff Frank McKeithen on Facebook in a post that suggested she had a vendetta against the BCSO and was using a “dirty cop defense” instead of a “competent defense.”

In another notable variation from the first trial, prosecutor Larry Basford and crime scene investigator Mike Wesley went to victim Terry Brazil’s home and asked him to swing a bedpost possibly used to batter Brazil in the bedroom. Wesley testified that he is roughly a foot taller than Brock, and he was able to swing the bed post freely without hitting the ceiling or anything else in the room.

Jewell wielded the bed post during her closing arguments in the first trial, and she suggested that it couldn’t be done in a room with 7-foot ceilings without hitting the ceilings.

There were heated arguments, while the jury waited outside the courtroom, about whether Wesley should be allowed to re-enact the crime in front of jurors.

“They said it wasn’t possible,” Basford said. “We know it is.”

Otherwise the retrial has mirrored the first trial, with several witnesses testifying Brock was destitute, and they didn’t know him to collect coins or carry firearms, and law enforcement officers testifying they found guns and valuable coins at Brock’s home during searches.

Brock’s trial is expected to last until Friday. He faces life in prison if he’s convicted.